By degrees he went over, went into and through, every department
of Prussian Business, in that fashion; steadily, warily,
irresistibly compelling every item of it, large and little, to
take that same character of perfect economy and solidity, of
utility pure and simple. Needful work is to be rigorously well
done; needless work, and ineffectual or imaginary workers, to be
rigorously pitched out of doors. What a blessing on this Earth;
worth purchasing almost at any price! The money saved is
something, nothing if you will; but the amount of mendacity
expunged, has any one computed that? Mendacity not of tongue;
but the far feller sort, of hand, and of heart, and of head;
short summary of all Devil's-worship whatsoever. Which spreads
silently along, once you let it in, with full purse or with empty;
some fools even praising it: the quiet DRY-ROT of Nations!
To expunge such is greatly the duty of every man, especially of
every King. Unconsciously, not thinking of Devil's-worship, or
spiritual dry-rot, but of money chiefly, and led by Nature and the
ways she has with us, it was the task of Friedrich Wilhelm's life
to bring about this beneficent result in all departments of
Prussian Business, great and little, public and even private.
Year after year, he brings it to perfection; pushes it unweariedly
forward every day and hour. So that he has Prussia, at last, all a
Prussia made after his own image; the most thrifty, hardy,
rigorous and Spartan country any modern King ever tied over;
and himself (if he thought of that) a King indeed. He that models
Nations according to his own image, he is a King, though his
sceptre were a walking-stick; and, properly no other is.

Friedrich Wilhelm was wondered at, and laughed at, by innumerable
mortals for his ways of doing; which indeed were very strange.